The translation-method is injurious here too, because it veils contours which ought to be sharp. For instance, the pupils will not get the proper conception of gender and its relation to expressions for sex, if er referring to der hut and sie referring to die bank, and likewise il referring to le chapeau, and elle referring to la chaise, are all translated by the English it, while the same pronouns, when used about persons, are translated by he and she.
Comparisons between the languages which the pupils know, for the purpose of showing their differences of economy in the use of linguistic means of expression, will only be a natural outcome of this systematized occupation with the theory of the language, and may often become very interesting, especially for advanced students. (Comparisons between the reflexive pronouns in the different languages; du ihr Sie sie—toi vous vous ils elles eux—you you you they—il y a, es giebt, there is, etc.). The teacher may call attention to the inconsistency of the languages; what is distinctly expressed in one case is in another case not designated by any outward sign (haus häuser; häuschen häuschen—house houses; sheep sheep—cheval chevaux; vers vers—yes in reality also maison, maisons, etc.; mich mir, dich dir, sich sich; der mann, die frau, das weib; ein guter mann, eine gute frau, ein gutes weib; der gute mann, die gute frau, das gute weib; die männer, die frauen, die weiber; die guten m., f., w., etc.). In French and English, there is ample occasion to point out how differently the grammatical relations present themselves in sound and on paper (singular and plural alike in bon bons, beau beaux, hideux hideux, further amer amère, clair claire, révolutionnaire révolutionnaire | church churches, judge judges | sin sinned, fine fined | say said, lay laid, etc.). That this may be a good way to make a beginning in comparative philology scarcely needs further proof; many things belonging to this field of study can be understood by our advanced pupils, and ought to belong to a good general education. Everyone who has received a little more than the most ordinary school education ought to understand what is meant by the relationship and development of languages; he ought to be acquainted with such linguistic phenomena as the loss of sounds, assimilation, analogical formations, differentiations, etc.; he ought to have noticed examples of these phenomena, both in his mother tongue and in the foreign languages which he has learned, just as he ought to realize how these processes continually influence the whole construction of the languages, and, in the course of time, have produced such great differences as those he sees between German and English, or between Latin and French; a valuable point of departure would be to take up the fate of French loan-words in English with the frequent retention of the old French sounds (ch in chase, j in journal, n in cousin cousine, s in beast, feast, etc.). But however interesting and valuable these things are, it is scarcely advisable to devote too much time to them as long as the living languages have so few hours at their disposal. How much or how little of this sort of thing the teacher takes up will also, to a great extent, depend upon whether the class on the whole is ripe for it, and if the pupils show sufficient interest and desire to ask questions; very much philology ought not to be forced upon them.
Exercises in systematization need not be limited to the field of grammar; the lexical side of the language may also be taken up in a similar manner, even if to a less extent. Several methods of reviewing vocabulary have been mentioned above, but there are still more ways; for instance the teacher may give the pupil a certain subject (the human body, war, a railway journey) about which he is to collect all the words and expressions which he can remember—or which occurred in the last narrative read—and he may also arrange them in various subdivisions. This can best be done in the form of a written exercise.
The pupils may also be set to separate a complex event or series of actions, etc., into its single component parts. For instance, they may describe the process of getting dressed in all its details, or the way to school in the morning. The more detailed the pupils can make their descriptions, the better; they thus get use for a number not only of substantives but especially of verbs in their natural connection, which they see before them in their “mind’s eye”—but I scarcely think that Gouin’s ideas[37] ought to be used for more than such occasional series.
Advanced students may also be instructed in a systematic collecting of the most important synonyms. Each one should have a special note-book for the purpose, where a whole page is given to each group of synonyms which the teacher wants them to treat; on this page they write down all those sentences where they come across the word in question. Now and then the teacher and the class together may examine all the sentences which have been collected and try to establish the difference between the synonyms on the basis of the examples found. Of especial value are of course those sentences where several synonyms occur directly after each other (How much of history we have in the story of Arthur is doubtful. What is not very thrilling as story may be of profound interest as history. Half a loaf is better than no bread. A nice little loaf of brown bread). It will also be of interest occasionally to draw up comparative tabular lists from different languages as for instance—
| mensch | man | homme |
| mann | man | homme |
| mann | husband | mari |
to which remarks may be added about the use of human being and individu when indication of sex is to be avoided. Furthermore—
| weib | woman | femme |
| weib, frau | wife | femme |
| frau | lady | dame |
| frau | Mrs. | madame |
| dame | lady | dame |
| baum | tree | arbre |
| holz | wood | bois |
| wald | wood, forest | bois, forêt |
Such tables will do more than long explanations to illustrate the differences between the languages, and to show how often words are ambiguous and vague in meaning. It is evident, however, that many of the subtle and fanciful indications of shades of meaning found in the dictionaries of synonyms are entirely beyond the grasp of ordinary pupils.